Tuesday, November 30, 2010

SO MANY THINGS!!! (Aside from Leslie Neilsen dying and destroying my week, that is)

First, let's get a rundown of all of the awesome madness that is ensuing at the ZEROFRIENDS LA Retail Store this weekend:

As the brilliantly designed flyer above states, MY FAVORITE ARTIST in the ENTIRE UNIVERSE will be making his first appearance at the Zerofriends LA store THIS SATURDAY and signing & sketching alongside Craola! Hah! See what I did there? Alright, that was my attempt at boosting my confidence. Didn't work, so let's just get to the facts.In a short little fun pre-holiday gathering, Greg "Craola" Simkins & Myself, Alex "Crappy RoseArt Brand" Pardee, will be hanging and singing for 2 hours at the ZEROFRIENDS LA Store! And yes, this actually DOES mark both Greg & My first time at the ZF LA store! I have been hard at work on my upcoming SOLO SHOW for the Corey Helford Gallery, so I haven't even had a chance to see the store yet! And I won't be back until mid January, if at all, so please please come say hi to me and Greg this Saturday, Dec 4, from NOON - 2PM!

Oh, and ALSO, because Greg & I both loved the ORANGE LANTERN COLLAB PRINT that we just released together, and since we both also love Christmas, we had a little fun defacing the original Orange Lantern piece for the holiday season and are releasing ONLY 40 OF THESE on Saturday exclusively at the Zerofriends LA store!!Check it:

What about FRIDAY, you ask?! Well Friday evening is going to slap you in your visage with a whole loaf of hardened AWESOMEsauce, as we are doing something that we have never done before and we are super excited about it.

Basically, if you follow Chet Zar, easily one of the best monster painters in all of the land, and someone who I have looked up to for years (I actually had seeked him out for advice years ago when I got hired as art director for The Used to get a little guidance as he had worked with bands for years prior, and he was my advice-wizard and I will forever love him for that:), then you most likely have seen his ongoing live-tweeting art project called #FridayNightArtDorks, which basically invites twitter users who are working on art on Friday nights to share their progress and work with each other via Twitter. Every Friday, Chet shares sculptures, color studies, collabs with his father, and drawings, and he has started a really cool cult of us artists who like to share stuff with each other for inspiration on those cold Friday nights.

So you know what Chet is doing THIS FRIDAY!? He is hosting the very first IN-PERSON #FridayNightArtDorks at the ZEROFRIENDS LA Store!

The event is open to anyone who would normally be stuck at home or in the studio working on art on a Friday night. Don't stay at home this Friday, come down and work on your own art alongside Chet and other art-dorks! There will be zombie movies being shown and maybe even some snacks so you don't neglect yourself and die.

Not everyone has to paint or work, of course, but it would be that much more fun if you all do. The idea is to create a fun creative night and share techniques, inspiration, and jokes with other artists and friends. You can start a piece here, bring one you've been working on to finish, etc. We also want to encourage you to Twitter your progress from the night. BRING YOUR OWN SUPPLIES THOUGH, PLEASE!!! NO ART SUPPLIES WILL BE…SUPPLIED.

Chet is an amazing painter and an amazing person so this is basically a rare opportunity to hang out, draw, and absorb some Chet-sweat!

Lastly, since we are talking about the store, Stephen Reedy has been doing a phenomenal job at hosting Movie Knights and everyone has been having a blast. No official Movie Knights event this week (though we will play movies at Chet's event) but stay tuned as you don't want to miss out on the next one. I mean, last week, at the ROBOCOP night, we had an "I'D BUY THAT FOR A DOLLAR" Sale where everyone got to buy this brand new Robocop Monster print for A DOLLAR!

Here are a few photos from the last 2 events. Stay tuned!

Lastly, a couple of additional things I want to mention that are going on in other parts of the world! Or at least in other parts of the west coast.

ZEROFRIENDS PRINT DISPLAY/ART SHOWDECEMBER 2ndAt:UPPER PLAYGROUND IN PORTLAND, OR23 Northwest 5th AvenuePortland, OR 97209(503) 548-4835Yes, we (Zerofriends) will have a large selection of our prints on display and for sale all through the month of December at the amazing Upper Playground PDX! And we can't have any kind of show without releasing something exclusive, right? Well, to celebrate my homie, and Oregon native Danger Ehren's career, Upper Playground will exclusively release "THE STUNTMAN" limited giclee print, which was inspired by Danger Ehren's insanity. Limited Edition print, 22" x 17" Check out the print show opening December 2!Here is the STUNTMAN Print:

Also on Dec 2 (same day) but in SF, I am a tiny part of a HUGE group show at 111 Minna Gallery called 111 At 111, featuring 111 artists. This drawing, called "SLAYER" is in the show and for sale:

Gallery/show info:111 At 111December 2, 5 Pm111 Minna StSF, CA21 +

I am also lucky enough to be a part of THIS INSANITY that is jumping off on December 9 in Santa Monica, CA, thanks to THE HUNDREDS!More info next week, including a look at the painting that I did for the opening launch!

And lastly part 9, next week we (Zerofriends) will also be releasing a new crop of shirts just in time for Christmas as well as ANOTHER cool sale/print giveaway. More on that in a few days. Until then, here are some clues to the releases!

Alright, back to painting! It's only 3AM, i still have 2 hours of worktime left! yay!!!

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Ordering online not exciting enough for you!? GOOD! Then get your ass down to the Zerofriends LA (at Cella Gallery) Retail store and join in the Black Friday fun there! The first 100 people to spend $25 or more starting TOMORROW (the store opens at noon) gets THIS exclusive signed, numbered, limited edition 8" x 10" print from me FREE!! And this little rectangle of joy won't be available anywhere else ever in forever.

If the X-men were real, my Grandfather's Great-Great Uncle Randy would certainly be a part of the team. Instead of being a cool super mutant though, he's just kind of a...well...mutant. He suffers from a disease that allows him to age, but doesn't allow him to die. At all. He looks kinda like how the guy at the end of Indiana Jones looks when he chooses poorly, except for like, he's alive. And awesome. I don't see Uncle Randy much anymore as he seems to like going to Egypt a lot since he says he fits in there better and gets to play funny pranks on tourists where he lays down in sarcophaguses and then jumps up and scares people. He's hilarious.

One of my favorite stories that Uncle Randy used to recite to me when I was little was about his third favorite mystical creature, the Unirkey. He said that in 1621, the Pilgrims begged the Heavens for a turkey big enough for the 53 of them to feast upon to celebrate their harvest. To their disbelief, a 240 pound wild turkey fell from the sky right onto the serving platter on the middle of the giant dinner table."GET IT!" yelled the head pilgrim. But the turkey was too quick. It clawed its way off of the table and soon had a band of hungry pilgrims chasing it into a small patch of forest. Little did anyone know, a once-in-a-lifetime event was happening in the forest at that very moment: A 6-eyed Unicorn who lived behind the rainbows was bathing in a waterfall in plain sight. The unicorn sensed the fear in the giant turkey from the sky, and acted accordingly. The unicorn exploded out of the waterfall, ducked his neck down, swooped up the turkey, flung him onto his own back, and galloped straight through the band of Pilgrims, piercing almost all of them with it's majestic horn. After the Unicorn bolted into the sunset, no one heard from, saw, or mentioned that incident again. Until years later, in the middle of the same patch of forest, on Thanksgiving, behind the waterfall, someone saw something. It was giant. It resembled a turkey...but with six eyes...and a breathtaking horn. And it seemed to be....glowing. When the man approached the magical beast it had vanished. More sightings were reported behind waterfalls all over the world over the years, all occurring on Thanksgiving. Rumor has it that the giant turkey and the unicorn were quite smitten with each other, and that this mystical Unirkey is their love-child. But what does it want? And where will it strike (a pose) next? No one knows, but if I were you, I would pay close attention to any form of flowing water on Thanksgiving, as you might be in for a surprise.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

We here at Zerofriends are proud to announce our Second Annual BROWN THURSDAY PRINT GIVEAWAY EXTRAVAGANZA!

What's the best thing about running an online business during an economy like this? I mean, aside from the overwhelming number of PHP Groupies and Hypertext chicks that flock to us because of our integrated shopping cart coding? Well, the best thing about this type of business is that we can have a huge Black Friday Sale ON A BROWN THURSDAY and get this SHIT goin EARLY!!

That's right, an entire day before some of you hoarders line up at Wal-Mart to get a free pair of the wrong sized shoes when you buy a 30 dollar flat screen, you can ON-LINE UP at Zerofriends.com and check out, alongside 15 BRAND NEW PRODUCTS, the new (temporary) slashed prices on a few Different Signed Limited Giclee Prints (40% off of some of them!!), as well as some t-shirts too! (*Cue the Sham-Wow whore-punching guy now, stage left)"And THAT'S NOT ALL! Hate spending money, even on stuff that's on sale, and NOT getting FREE STUFF??!! Well, so do I! That's why I have convinced the handsome (kinda) guys over at Zerofriends to throw in something FREE with ANY purchase of $25 or more!!! Want a print of a kid holding a shotgun and some crazy colors all around him??!! YOU WILL GET A FREE EXTRA PRINT TOO! What about a colorful Batman shirt to bless your chest?! FREE…EXTRA…PRINT! Want a print of a gay monster?!! WHAM! FREE EXTRA PRINT! There is NO escape from a bombardment of FREEEEEEEE! I know you are saying "Well, Sham-Wow Whore-Puncher, free is good and all, but what exactly am I getting free??" Good thing you asked, jerk! Let me tell you! What you will be getting is ONE of TWO HUNDRED individually signed and numbered, 8" x 10" exclusive Giclee print of one of two different Alex Pardee paintings! Both "THE SCRATCH FAMILY" & "BACKPACK THE THIRD" will be given out with every order of $25 or more in the order that WE receive the orders while supplies last! Note, you can NOT specify which of the 2 prints you would like, you will receive one corresponding to the order that we receive the orders in. Confusing? AWESOME! Check 'em out (And YES, we ship WORLDWIDE!)

3. Take notes, and WAIT PATIENTLY UNTIL THANKSGIVING (Officially starts midnight Wednesday night Pacific Standard Time)4. Starting On Brown Thursday, Nov 25, Purchase ANY combination of items equalling $25 or more (it doesn't have to be one of the sale items) and recieve, along with your order, ONE free signed & numbered print (limited edition of 100)!*5. EAT MORE FOOD!

*Limit of ONE free print per HOUSEHOLD. While supplies last.

Now Check out a selection of the NEW PRODUCTS, which are available NOW, but If you wait until the BROWN THURSDAY SALE then you have a chance to get a FREE PRINT alongside of your order:)

Back by overwhelming popular demand! The re-issue of "The Day I Killed My Father", this time entitled 'The NIGHT I Killed My Father"By Alex PardeeLimited Edition of 200.17" x 22"Signed and numbered by Alex Pardee$40.00

"THE MOST AWFUL THING"By SKINNERLimited Edition of 5017" x 22"Signed and numbered by SKINNER

MY FAVORITE MONSTERS, SERIES #3: GIANT MONSTERS!!

MY FAVORITE MONSTERS SERIES #3: GIANT MONSTERS!By Alex Pardee.Keeping the scale of the monsters intact, THESE monster prints are 8" x 10", which is bigger than the other 2 Sets (those are 5" x 7")!Unlimited edition.Signed by Alex Pardee$50.00 for the whole set, including (From Left to Right) STAY PUFT MARSHMALLOW MAN, THE KRAKEN, MOTHRA, AND MCP (From Tron)! These Monster Prints are also available separately for $15 each!

BRAND NEW SECTION OF THE STORE: 8" x 10" UNLIMITED PRINTS!!

FINALLY! Some of our most POPULAR, in-demand Limited Edition Giclee prints that have been LONG SOLD OUT in their Larger, Limited form, are now reincarnated and available in UNLIMITED 8" x 10" EDITIONS! We are starting off this section with 5 of our favorite prints, but stay tuned as we will be releasing more periodically!Assorted 8" x 10" UNLIMITED GICLEE PRINTS Signed by Alex Pardee.$15 each.This section also features some new limited print releases from TARA MCPHERSON & SKINNER AS WELL!

And semi-lastly, we also RE-STOCKED ON A BUNCH OF SHIRTS! So if we ran out of your size before, we may have it back in stock.

Anyway, why are you reading this far down?? Everything might actually be gone if you spend any more time reading my meandering banter!! So, in closing, HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM ALL OF US HERE AT ZEROFRIENDS! WE ARE DEFINITELY THANKFUL FOR EVERYONE OF YOU. Yes, even YOU, guy-who-hates-us-publicly;)See you online in a couple of days when the SALE starts!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

For the last 2 months, on top of some other really exciting projects that I have been lucky enough to have had a hand in, like the CAGE VIDEO my new art book (coming soon, but it's finally done), opening up the Zerofriends stores, and MY ART-BASED IPHONE APP, I have been quietly working amongst the late late hours of the night doing something a little unconventional, at least for me and my complete A.D.D riddled brain-thing. I have been dreaming. And imagining. Ok maybe getting lost with my head in the clouds in the middle of the night isn't THAT unconventional for me, but the bi-product of it IS, because those late nights, for once in my life, were FOCUSED. I somehow was able to throw away every little stressful thought ranging from "oh no i accidentally gave out my phone number on twitter again" or "why am I still heavy, i ATE A VEGETABLE ONCE!" to "dang. the robots are winning. I swear in 5 years we ARE going to be slaves. Flight of the Conchords was RIGHT!" and direct my brain in one single direction: Creating an entire new body of work that would be different from anything that I have done before. So for 2 months, every night, I completely conceptualized, wrote, scribbled, destroyed, re-scribbled, re-wrote, and re-thought out a brand new body of work that I am more than excited to debut at COREY HELFORD GALLERY in LA on Jan 8th, 2011. The show is titled "VERTIGO" and there is a very specific reason for the title. I will share more info about the direction, concepts, and visuals behind the show soon, but mark your calendars now because I promise you, that for the next 42 days, I am not sleeping, and on Jan 8th I will show you something…..fun:)

Meanwhile, have some fun and try to imagine what a particular type of nightmare (like falling, or losing teeth) would look like if it existed as a physical manifestation and could walk and talk. Got it? Good. See you soon. I gotta get back to work!

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

The only thing that makes me sadder than knowing that I won't be around to bring The Movie Knights tradition to our LA Zerofriends Store is those "sad dog" commercials that hopefully hire happy actor dogs and put weeds and dirt on them for dramatic effect . HOWEVER, the planets have aligned and the Knights have a new General. Zerofriends Super-Director STEPHEN REEDY, over the course of the next couple of months, will be hosting and sharing some awesomely fun screenings and events at the Zerofriends LA store! And I wouldn't want anyone else for the job! The dynamic will be amazing and it will make the LA Movie Knights events that much more special. Whereas in SF, you had me, my bad homemade t-shirts I would make for the show, and terrible puns being shouted by me throughout the film. And in LA, you will have Stephen, who can make Cliff Clavin envious of his knowledge about everything in the universe sharing behind the scenes knowledge, personal stories, short films, food, guest hosts, and prizes at the screenings:)

More to be announced soon, but our FIRST L.A. Movie Knights event is tomorrow, THIS WEDS, November 17, at 8PM! A few things have changed tho, so read all the info:MOVIE KNIGHTS LA is a FREE event.Unlike the SF events, Movie Knights LA will NOT always be on Wednesdays, so stay tuned for weekly info.Seating is on a first come, first serve basis.Movie Knights takes place AT THE ZEROFRIENDS LA STORE.There will be a short section of pre-programming on most occasions, as well as some small snacks provided, all of which will vary at each event.So yah, set your DVR to record Glee or whatever you do on a Weds night, and come join the crew for our inaugural LA MOVIE KNIGHTS! And we are jumping off with one of my favorite splatter comedies of all time, an over-imaginative and inspirational little film called…..DEAD ALIVE (Aka Braindead).

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Man, it seems like only yesterday that we were closing up the San Francisco Zerofriends store. Wait, what? It WAS yesterday? Really? hmm, ok well, either way, ONWARD WE ROLL! Next stop, Lost Angela!

Like a dwarf dipped in honey, I'm gonna keep this short and sweet. My clothing & art company, ZEROFRIENDS, is continuing its gypsy-like trek around the country, setting up temporary retail stores to integrate and introduce our brand and art to different cities for a couple months at a time. First was NY, then SF where we teamed up with Upper Playground, and now, for the next 3 months, we will be teaming up with CELLA GALLERY and chillin in Los Angeles!

OPENING THIS SATURDAY, NOV 13 (and every day after that) around noon, we will be set up in a cool little shop in the North Hollywood Art District for the next 3 months, so please come say hi, check out the products, see some art, and hang like that the cat in that old 70's poster. Here is the official info & hours for the store, starting this saturday and below there's some info about the opening event and what is to come in the next few months at the store:)

THIS SATURDAY, Nov 13, is our first OFFICIAL day open! Though we are not having a large grand opening event, there WILL be some amazing special guests in town hanging out at the store signing prints and chatting. Zerofriends' own DAVE CORREIA & ROBERT BOWEN, along with maybe some surprise visits from friends (hint, hint, friends!) will be there all day Saturday. I unfortunately, will not be able to make the opening due to scheduling conflicts but I will be down there soon:) So take a break from sitting in the LA sun in mid November, and go check out the new spot! Also, the transition was VERY quick from SF to LA, and this amazing opportunity came a little faster than we had planned, so we jumped on it. Because of this, we are still working on some fun events, new product releases, MOVIE KNIGHTS (maybe hosted by some fun LA friends:) so stay tuned to what madness we can bring ya in the next 3 months. Thanks in advance for your support. Love,Zerofriends

Monday, November 8, 2010

Hello world. It was a year ago today that Director Stephen Reedy, DP Chris Saul, myself as producer and our small Zerofriends Films crew shot our first Zerofriends short film, THE WINTER STALKER. Not ONE person on our team has stopped working for a moment since then, and the results have been incredible. We have all come a long way, lost some money, lost some more hair, juggled other jobs, won some film festivals, Chis and his wife had a baby, Dave Correia learned how to build tentacles and houses and robots, I moved like 3 times, and we even added an amazing effects wizard to the team (Teague Chrystie). So nothing makes me happier than when I click "play" on the little youtube box below and I see the final results of all of our collected dedication. So please take a couple of minutes and check out Director Stephen Reedy & Zerofriends' newest monster, the official music video for someone who I have been a fan of since Agent Orange, CAGE. I am proud to present, "CAPTAIN BUMOUT":

We spent weeks in pre-production with Dave Correia designing rubber tentacle-puppets and figuring out the effects, then shot the video in LA at R&R gallery over 2 days, alongside a warehouse of Cage fans and friends and made a nuclear mess of the place, and then worked on editing, effects, sound and post-production as hard as humanly possible. It was finally finished last night at 3:30 AM.Thank you in the most amazing way possible to our creative team, Stephen, Cage, Chris, Megan, Dave, Teague, Melissa, Rich, and everyone else involved. This is my favorite thing ever. And I finally got to die on screen. So much fun

And speaking of Cage, this tuesday, KID CUDI's new album is released which is A) Awesome, and B) Has a CAGE Collab song called Maniac on it! So please go our and support!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Continuing the new weekly feature on the blog exploiting old shit from my past, (last week Stephen Reedy & I shared an old music video for Deadmau5 HERE) this week brings 2 pages from 2 separate unpublished old zines of mine. In the late 90's I was obsessed with making zines. I wanted to work in the comics and humor industry but got multiple rejection letters from comic book companies and humor publications around 1995. At that time all of the submission responses from a lot of companies had "check boxes" that had multiple options as to why your work was rejected. On 5 in a row, the 2 boxes that were checked were "your art is not good" and "there is no market for your art". This rapid succession of letters basically made me too scared to ever send off any more submissions, so instead I just started a self-publishing company called Eyesuck Ink and printed everything myself and didn't ever have to show anyone anything or get anything approved or have people tell me I suck, because I already knew it, so I ran with it. Over the course of about 7 years, I managed to write, draw and publish about 15 different books, zines & calendars. Shit was fun. But there are still a few books I never finished, or never published beyond a few photocopied versions. Here are 2 different pages from 2 different books that will most likely never see the light other than the backlight of your monitor right now. So here ya go. Both are from about 1997-1998.

From my unpublished "My Book of Nonsense":

And from my limited free "My Book of Memories" (only about 100 were printed):

Halloween is over, pumpkins are rotting, tempting me to hug them so hard that their squishy rotten skin & guts spill all over me, and the Zerofriends SF store is officially closed…but our friends Aesop Rock, Cage, & Chauncey made sure that we closed our doors with dignity. Check out some photos from the AMAZING free in-store performance that my fellow members of Cardboard City blessed upon all of us in the form of awesomeness. And thank you everyone for coming out to the event (look at that crowd above!), dressing up, hanging out, and supporting us alongside Cage & Aesop Rock, in what was a perfect experience for me, the Darkest Ice Wizard from the Coldest Unknown Realm.

Fresh off his hosting of Movie Knights a couple weeks ago, Robert Bowen made sure that everyone stayed out of BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE STORE...

Even though I TOTALLY COULD HAVE protected the store simply with an "Ice Shield" spell, cast from the Staff of Frozen Souls.

Wait, we had protection from a GNOME-Fish as well?? Dude, we got this covered!

Aesop Rock warms up cozily in front of an Armwhal.

While Cage has a meet n' greet with his biggest fan, Dave Correia's brother Kuato from Mars. Cage thought he had met Kuato before, but he didn't Totally Recall it.

Then I got to share my Icy Goblet of Blood with Cage, who drank it all in one gulp, which meant I needed more icy blood asap…

WHAT?! Walgreens has NO icy blood?!!

Special appearance by G'NR's Buckethead and Bozo the Super-Patient Clown

And Zerofriends friend Mike Kershnar showed up as Mike In Wolf's Clothing!

Cage treats other's intenstines like he treats his own: He puts cigarettes out on them while Dark Ice Wizards watch in awe.

HOLY SHIT WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!!!?

Oh, good, ok, it's just Sage, who is kinda human. For a minute I was scared.

I offered this Icy Goblet of Blood to the Gods in exchange for having such a cool event.

But before we got started I had to make sure I taught Chauncey, our DJ for the night, a new Orbital Ice Spell.

Conjuring up the stars of the evening, Cage & Aes!!!

Searching to be held but nobody wants to hug…

AESOP ROCKED.

The intimacy of zombies.

For the first time ever in public, Jeremy Fish RIPPED a kazoo solo during Aesop Rock performing "PIGS".

Cardboard City

I love everything about this photo.

The crowd was all snuggly. We loved it.

Then maybe the cops came….or maybe that's the Blue's Brothers' car.

Speaking of BLUEs Brothers.

Drawing visual recipes for Ice Dagger spells for fans.

Packing up to leave we got a fun visit from Allyson (center)from DIRTY GHOSTS, one of my favorite recent bands.

Then we capped off the night by hanging at the BAD DAD's show at LOPO Gallery in SF. Dang, good night. Happy Halloween.